So, you want your Web site to rank high on Google and
other search engines.

To do that, you’re planning on hiring a search engine
optimization (SEO) firm. Good move -- maybe. A good SEO
firm can help make your rankings and sales skyrocket.
That’s the good news. The bad news is there are a
lot of SEO firms out there that will charge you big
bucks without delivering results. As someone in the SEO
business myself, I’ve heard countless horror stories
about people who have gotten ripped off by paying for
services they didn’t need, or simply not understanding
what their SEO firm is supposed to be doing on their
behalf.

Below are some of the things most SEO firms will never
tell you. Knowing these insider secrets can save you
thousands of dollars and many hours of frustration.

1. Most SEO work follows the 80/20 rule. In other
words, 20% of the work will account for 80% of the
results. If that’s true (and believe me, from personal
experience I know that it is), you should make sure
that the fee structure reflects this.  Ask for an
itemized quote, so you can make sure that you aren’t
paying too much for the other 80%.  For example, a lot
of SEO experts will tell you they’re going to spend X
number of hours tweaking your site’s keywords and meta
tags, but there’s really no hard evidence that those
techniques have a significant impact on your rankings.
Doing simple things like making sure your page
structure is "search engine friendly" (ensuring all
your pages can be indexed by search engines) is
infinitely more important.  As part of a comprehensive
SEO strategy, you still want to do the other 80%, but
you want to make sure that the bulk of the priority
(and cost) is focused the effort that will produce the
most results.

2. You can receive a guarantee. Most big SEO firms say
to watch out for anyone who guarantees results. They’ll
tell you most places that do so are nothing but
scam artists. Here’s the truth: I can absolutely
guarantee any business I can get you ranked in the top
10 on Google for any keyword you choose. It all depends
on how much money you’re willing to spend and how long
you’re willing to wait for the results. If an SEO firm
is confident in their ability to improve your rankings,
why wouldn’t they offer you a guarantee?

3. You can see immediate results. Most SEO firms will
try to tell you it takes months to see tangible
results. Wrong. In fact, it’s often possible to see
results within a week, depending on the keywords you’re
targeting. I know because I’ve accomplished this for my
clients time and time again. Unless you’re going after
extremely competitive keywords, if the SEO firm bidding
for your business says it will take three months to
accomplish anything, they’re probably just looking to
sign you up for a lucrative long-term retainer.

4. SEO work is not too complicated to explain in
detail.  Too many SEO experts will balk if you ask them
to explain in detail the work they’re going to do for
you. But don’t let them off the hook. While some
strategies may indeed be technical, most of the
techniques are easily explained -- especially some of
the most important ones (see point #1 above about the
80/20 rule). If you’re going to pay someone a lot of
money to work for you, you deserve and explanation of
exactly what they’re going to do.

5. The greatest factor in SEO has nothing to do with
your web site. In my research, I’ve found that around
80% of the Google ranking factors have nothing to do
with the web site itself. The real determining factors
are links to your site from other web sites. As long as
your site is easily crawled by Google, most of the
energy should be focused on getting these outside
links. If an SEO firm tries to sell you an expensive
package to simply "optimize" your site for Google, it’s
probably going to cost you a lot of money for very
little result.